Monday, November 7, 2022

Werewolf By Night

Halloween only ends if you let it.




I know it probably surprised people that Marvel has had pure horror devoted comics, but even in my ever so slight knowledge of their history I was familiar with the comics with connections to classic monsters, Werewolf By Night, Tomb Of Dracula, and The Living Mummy, but it was still a bit of a shock seeing them adapt it. And for a special not even an hour long it does a fair bit and tells a one shot comic story where a group of monster hunters convene to obtain a powerful mystical jewel and find there is more to this hunt than they thought. It's short, it's sweet, shot in glorious pristine black and white film grain and all, I had a great time with it. Obviously the cinematography gets a lot of love from me, to see good old black and white horror look so crisp and hi-def was genuinely something I'd never thought I'd see, with lighting that's taken from german expressionist horror, sets that would make Universal proud, and creature effects that only use computers when necessary. The characters for the majority are just kinda there, not poorly acted but a body count has to rise somehow. John and Jovan had great personality to them, and while Elsa was just kinda one note bitchy for the beginning I can fully see why she grew up that way with her **** of a step mom and she did start moving towards likable near the end. Tiniest of tangents here but John flat out was giving me slight Papa Emeritus from the band Ghost vibes, maybe it was the clothes, maybe it was his physicality, but all he was missing was a Vincent Price moustache and shazam, the singer for Ghost! He doesn't even need to hunt monsters, he can just charm them by singing Cirice! And I love our monster friend who looks like a mix between Cthulu sans wings, and Swamp Thing, and his name is Ted. I would give Ted a titanic tight tackle of a hug. Hands down, bloodiest Marvel film I've ever seen. I mean damn they aren't afraid to show some grisly ass shit man! I had no idea blood could be considered art but you see these arcing flows of arterial spray and splatter and it looks impressive I gotta say. I am fully 100% expecting a Tomb Of Dracula special next year and they have to go Hammer visuals, we got our Universal Monsters look here so we gotta jump forward to the bleak gothic atmosphere and rich vibrant blood color of the 50s and 60s. I'm not sure if there has ever been a collection or omnibus of the Marvel horror comics but I'd love to get my hands on one and read all the issues. But as for this special I give it 4 stars, 8/10! Next time, my most anticipated Marvel project since Multiverse Of Madness.

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